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Move over
Prince William and royal bride-to-be Kate Middleton… dedicated Metro readers have their minds on one impending marriage only and it’s that of loved-up commuters Jon Ireland and Ben Collins.

William who? Jon’s magnificent Metro marriage proposal

Jon was one of this week’s triumphant entrants to the Metro Win The Cover competition , capturing the hearts of commuters UK-wide with his front-page proposal to Ben, his partner of (almost) five years.

For the Woodford-dwelling pair, Tuesday started out like any other day, with bank worker Ben heading off to their local Tube station while carer Jon, who works shifts, remained at home with his fingers crossed.

The 27-year-old admitted he was worried regular Metro reader Ben would face some diversion from his usual routine that might prevent him from seeing the all important message on the one-off cover.

But it turns out all went according to plan… sort of. Having missed out on his own copy from the station on his way through, it was a fellow Tube passenger’s Metro that caught Ben’s eye.

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Clocking his name, the 23-year-old panicked at the sight of it on the front cover.

‘I don’t always get a Metro at my station – depending on the time of the morning there can be hardly any left,’ he explained.

‘So I didn’t get a Metro this morning and, on the train, this guy was reading it in front of me.

‘Then I saw my name and I thought “what?” I sort of blinked twice, then I’m looking around for a Metro – I gave up my seat to try to find one.

‘When I found one and saw the front cover properly it was a shock – and as soon as I got above ground again at Marble Arch I had five or six missed calls on my phone from people asking if I’d seen it.’

Ben eventually gave his partner a resounding ‘YES’ when the pair were able to get through to each other a few hours later – after Ben initially texted Jon with the promise: ‘I’m going to kill you!’

Love, eh?

And what of the aforementioned royal nuptials and our happy couple’s reaction to the second in line to the throne stealing their thunder?

‘Ben’s a royalist – he loves all that,’ revealed Jon, who also told us he and his partner had previously chatted about marriage and a proposal was always a possibility.

‘When I saw the Win The Cover competition in Metro I thought that it would be a great idea but that I’d probably never win it – those things don’t happen to me.

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‘So it’s been magical.’

‘At any other time I’d have been quite interested,’ chipped in Ben of the impending royal marriage. ‘But today’s all about me, so…’

Though they haven’t yet set a date for the big day, the grooms-to-be may try to tie their wedding in with their fifth anniversary next May – and with Kent’s picture-perfect Leeds Castle as the venue, no less.

For now we’ll leave the last word to one of the many Twitter users who have had the microblogging sphere awash with good wishes for Jon and Ben today – and may we just say we second the sentiment!

‘The #marriagepaperosal on the cover of Metro this morning was very sweet and a noble winner… enjoy your partnership!’